twenty questions
by 5harky
Summary: Tony is infuriating in ways that are on a whole new level, even for him.


"What's your opinion on cake?"

Tony's voice traveled from across the lab, making Bruce look through the screen he was working on, his brow furrowed and his glasses slipping down his nose as he surveyed his lab partner slash roommate slash boyfriend.

"Cake? It's not something I've had in awhile, but it's good," Bruce answered easily, still curious as to why Tony asked him something like that, but after dating a man like Tony Stark for four years, six months, and twelve days, you get used to random questions about things like cake. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose again as he half-worked on his equations, half-watched Tony from across the room.

Tony stood up from where he sat at the workbench, pushing away what he had been working on to approach Bruce. His hands were shoved deep into the pockets of his jeans and he was doing that _stroll_ that he was so damn good at and it drove Bruce crazy. He tried to ignore him as he walked over, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of _knowing_that he had Bruce's full attention even though it was a futile effort after all this time.

Bruce watched him out of the corner of his eye as Tony stopped in front of him on the other side of the screen, something he still loved doing after all this time, and he just stood there and kept his stare fixed on him. He knew he was waiting for Bruce to acknowledge him, which only made Bruce want to deny him longer, but he caught a glimpse of Tony's sideways smirk and he sighed, relenting.

"What, Tony?" he asked with a smirk creeping at the corner of his lips, his eyes finally meeting the other man's.

"How about parties?"

"Okay, you know my stance on your parties already," Bruce told him, remembering the last one Tony had thrown. It had resulted in a team-wide ban on having jell-o on hand and Jarvis was now set to not take any orders from anyone who had uttered the words 'drunk science'.

"Not that kind of party."

"You actually have other kinds of parties? This is news to me."

"Oh, shut up. Parties. Stance. What?"

"Not big on the ones where you get hammered and end up trashing the Tower, but the galas we go to are nice," Bruce clarified.

Tony seemed to consider this for a moment, going quiet as he reached up to stroke a hand through his goatee and Bruce rolled his eyes and tried to get back to work. Tony didn't seem to like that he was being ignored again, so he closed down Bruce's work with a touch to the corner of the screen and he received a glare in response.

"Tony, I don't have time for-"

"Right, time, what's your favorite month?"

"What?"

"Month. Your favorite month, Bruce, not that hard of a question," Tony said, giving him a blank look as Bruce's brow creased even more.

"Uh...August? I don't know," he shrugged, reaching up to pull his glasses off to rub at his eyes tiredly.

"Perfect. How about jewelry?"

Bruce's lips parted in slight shock, definitely not following how Tony's mind was jumping from one random thing to the next. "Is this like, twenty questions or something, Tony? Because I'm really not following your right now."

"That wasn't an answer to my question."

"Well, you aren't answering any of my questions!"

"Well, it's not your turn."

"Like hell it isn't!" Bruce's voice elevated slightly, his shoulders tense and his fists clenched before he realized he needed to not lose control over something as stupid as arguing over stupid questions from his infuriating boyfriend. He exhaled slowly and shut his eyes, letting the tension bleed out of his muscles as he breathed deep.

"Look, Tony, just tell me why you're asking me all of this?"

"You are so, _so_ smart, Bruce. But sometimes you're really _really_slow," Tony told him with a small sympathetic smile.

"Wha-?" Bruce began, only to be cut off by Tony again.

"Jewelry, Bruce. Play along."

"I don't wear any. Obvious reasons why I wouldn't," Bruce said with a sigh, giving in to Tony's game, whatever it was.

"Alright, we'll fix that."

"Fix what?"

"You not able to wear jewelry."

"Why?"

"_Because._"

"You're being infuriating on a whole new level, even for you, Tony."

Tony went quiet for a moment, just staring at Bruce through the blue-tinted screen before he pushed it out of the way and stepped close to him, their hips aligning. He stayed silent and he just let Bruce breathe and calm himself down, placing his hands on his hips and keeping him close. He leaned forward to press their foreheads together, a silent apology in his eyes that Bruce saw as soon as he opened his own to gaze into Tony's big brown ones.

They stayed like that for a few long minutes, Bruce reaching in between them to press his palm flat against Tony's chest between the arc reactor and his heart to feel them both beneath his fingertips. He focused on that, letting his eyes slide shut again as he helped himself remember that he loved Tony, even when he was infuriating and idiotic daily.

"You good?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

"Good. What about a tux?"

Bruce blinked at him slowly, his now calm mind slowly piecing together each question Tony had asked him and his eyebrows knitted together in wonder. He was about to ask, when Tony gave him that look again and he dared not stray from the game they were playing.

"Tuxedos are good. Very classy."

"Inside or outside?"

"Inside. But not crowded or stuffy."

"Okay, how about champagne?"

"Good, but not massive amounts."

"Doable. How about a marriage license?"

Bruce paused, his answer on his lips when he realized exactly what Tony's last question was. He smiled slowly, his lips tugging up in the corner again to form a genuine grin on his face - the kind that Tony loved and had even gone out of his way to photograph in the past.

"Fantastic."

"Is that a yes?" Tony asked, keeping himself from smiling for a moment more, his expression still serious and Bruce held back the urge to punch him for being such an idiot.

"Is this you actually asking me to marry you?"

"It is if you say yes."

Bruce laughed out loud and shook his head in disbelief, winding his arms around Tony's neck as he slid closer to him.

"Yes."

"Yeah?"

"Yes, Tony."

"Oh."

"Oh?" Bruce asked incredulously, still smiling. "I say yes and you just say 'oh'?"

"Well, I just didn't think you'd actually say yes."

"Anthony Stark. If you ever say that again, I'm going to let the Other Guy out to teach you exactly how stupid you are for even _thinking _that. Got it?"

Tony finally let the grin slide easily onto his lips, pulling Bruce in close by hooking his fingers in his belt loops. They stood there grinning at each other for a moment more before Bruce leaned in to brush their lips together, not quite kissing him.

"And if you don't kiss me right now, I may have to take back that previous 'yes', so if I were you, I'd-"

Tony cut him off before he could say any more, sealing their lips together in a passionate kiss, Bruce still chuckling as he wove his fingers through Tony's hair and kept him close. It wasn't until Pepper came in fifteen minutes later to find them making out like teenagers against the table that either of them realized that they still had to tell the team. And oh, was _that_ going to be fun.

* * *

I got a prompt on one of my apps that said "the most important question to ask someone you want to marry is..." and I thought of them. So here's the result of that.

This is literally just a repost from my AO3 since I've finally decided to try again.


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